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First, Welcome to TRT! I'll try to give you my opinions on a few of your questions, others will chime in later. You don't need high power lgihting for the cycle, you could start cycling now and add good lights before you put in any corals. For lighting you should look at a T5 set-up for that size tank. The key in evaluating the different options is to get individual reflectors for eeach bulb. It costs more, but it is worth it. As you continue in the hobby you will want to try more and different stuff in your tank and T5's w/ ind reflectors will allow you to keep even the most demanding corals or clams. Do you have to have a skimmer, imo, no, as long as you do regular (weekly) water changes of at least 10 - 20%. It is critical before you start anything that you use ro/di water, not tap water. You can probably buy ro/di from your lfs for start up and water cahnges, but eventually you will probably want to have your own (can get some for around $100). Back to the skimmer, I run my 10 gl w/o a skimmer and the weekly water cahnges keep it fine, it has been running for over 5 yrs. Also, you may want to consider some test kits to moniter the cycle and then to keep track of what is happening in your tank. Good Luck! Keep asking questions, there are no dumb questions! (Also, if you don't get a lot of responses in this forum, you should try the General Discussion Forum - it seems a lot more people read and respond there.)
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Don 75 gl bb reef w/ 30 gl sump, Vertex IN 100, Tek 6 x 54 T5's - 10gl nano w/ 2 x 20 T5's
One out of four people in this country is mentally imbalanced. Think of your three closest friends - if they seem okay, then you're the one. Ann Landers
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